Seven Thoughts on Debacle 2016

Yep. And I will keep writing about it. This week, rather than offer more of my own writing, I’ll share seven articles by top thinkers shaping my perspective.

Are you in the Trump boat? Elsewhere? Either way, consider these viewpoints:

1. Ben Shapiro (National Review)“Trump has displayed instability, unwillingness to learn, and deep-seated arrogance manifest in an unearned sense of knowledge. His consummate belief in his own abilities as a dealmaker, combined with his unwarranted trust in his own ability to cut through thorny policy thickets with broad strokes, makes him ignorant and dangerous.”

2. Tom Nichols (The Federalist)
“The future of the entire conservative movement is at stake, and a Hillary Clinton victory over Donald Trump might be the only hope of saving it.”

3. Steve Johnston (The Federalist)
“I no longer harbor the Tea Party illusion that the Republican Party can be overtaken by representatives who will stand up for the Constitution and America’s founding principles.”

4. Steve Deace (Conservative Review)“Republican elites have had ample opportunities to dump Trump, but their continued refusal proves there’s only one thing they care about … and it’s not conservatism.”

5. Erick Erickson (Joint Opinion Piece published at The Resurgent)
“Donald Trump is utterly unfit for the Republican nomination for president, and unfit for the Oval Office. It is a toss-up as to which is worse: the huge likelihood that a Trump nomination would ensure the election of Hillary Clinton, or the seriously unlikely occurrence of Donald Trump actually taking office. Either outcome would be a disaster.”

6. David French (National Review)
“It is not worth throwing away years of influence for the sake of four months of intra-party peace. When Trump crashes and burns — and he will, either on the trail or in the Oval Office — Americans won’t look to his partisans and defenders to rebuild from the wreckage. They’ll seek other voices. For the sake of the nation, it’s vital that those other voices are both conservative and untainted by alliance or association with the newly minted Republican nominee for president.”

7. Walter Hudson (PJ Media)
“The response to Cruz’s exhortation demonstrates in rather unavoidable form what may be the worst problem facing the Trump campaign. His own voters don’t believe in him. So many Republicans backing Trump today are doing so for no other reason than his status as the nominee. That’s it. It’s a completely pragmatic choice based on the alternative of Hillary Clinton, and it’s a choice that goes against their own privately held beliefs.”